Even With New-Look Roster, Virginia Progressing Ahead of Schedule So Far

With a reassembled roster with several new faces, the new-look Cavaliers have impressively been on the same page early on

Last season, Virginia got off to a fast start, a product of an experienced roster with many returning starters and key role players plus the advantage of an exhibition tour to Italy in August that gave the Cavaliers a head start on building chemistry. UVA proved it was ahead of the curve by racking up some impressive wins in non-conference play against Baylor and Illinois in Las Vegas and at Michigan in the now-disbanded ACC/Big Ten Challenge. 

This season, a fast start wasn't exactly expected for the Cavaliers, who lost nearly their entire starting five plus a few key rotation players from last year's team, had no foreign exhibition tour in the summer, and had to assimilate several new faces, including four freshmen and four transfers, into the program. 

Tony Bennett recognized this challenge of building chemistry with a new-look roster at Virginia's media day in the week leading up to the start of the season. 

"I talked to all these guys about our team this year - the long game," Bennett said. "That's what I think our our season is - the long game. There might be some ups and downs, but can you be good in the long game and become something at the end." 

Clearly, Bennett expected it to take a little awhile for this year's Virginia to start playing to its potential, perhaps lowering expectations, at least slightly, for how the Cavaliers might look early in the season as they worked through the process of getting so many new faces on the same page. 

Instead, Virginia has played extremely well in its first two games, beating down Tarleton State in the opener and then passing its first test of the season with a hard-fought 73-70 victory over a solid Florida team on Friday night in Charlotte. 

Of course, it's a small sample size and as Tony Bennett said, there will be ups and downs as the season goes on. But it can't be denied that Virginia going down to Charlotte and beating a highly-capable Florida team, a team that had the tools to expose UVA's weaknesses with its imposing front court, indicates that the Cavaliers are much further along in their development as a team than expected. 

Freshman Blake Buchanan was particularly important in Virginia's win over Florida, giving the Cavaliers a big who could compete with the Gators' size on both ends of the floor. Buchanan himself is way ahead of schedule as compared to the precedent set for most UVA freshmen bigs in the Bennett era. It wouldn't be surprising to find him in the starting lineup sooner rather than later especially after his 18-point performance against Florida. 

Reece Beekman has been aggressive, taking the most shots on the team in each of the first two games. That's exactly what Virginia was hoping to see after Beekman decided to withdraw from the NBA Draft and return for his senior season. 

The offense is playing faster than usual and shooting it well from three-point range (17/40 or 42.5%), with Beekman, Isaac McKneely, Andrew Rohde, and Jake Groves proving to be capable from the perimeter. That is stretching the floor and freeing up space for Beekman to penetrate on dribble drives. And despite never having played in real games together, the new pieces - Rohde, Groves, Buchanan, and Dante Harris - are gelling remarkably well with the returners. 

There were mixed expectations for Virginia on the defensive end coming into the season. This could be the most athletic roster Tony Bennett has ever had, but there was no guarantee that the sum of those individual athletes were going to effectively execute the Pack Line Defense, especially early in the season, given the number of newcomers who weren't familiar with UVA's defensive system. There were also questions about Virginia's size and depth in the front court and those questions largely remain even after the Florida game. 

But UVA's athleticism on the defensive end has turned out to be even better than hoped. The Cavaliers are playing with heightened activity and aggression on defense. Steals have never been a critical aspect of the Pack Line Defense and yet, through two games, Virginia has an astonishing 24 steals as a team. In the win against Florida, UVA frequently disrupted entry passes to Florida's bigs in the paint, leading to 15 steals. Ryan Dunn had a career-high seven steals, one of which led to high-flying dunk on the other end. There's still room to grow for UVA's defense, but the steals and forced turnovers add a new element to the Cavaliers that further heightens their defensive potential. 

Again, it's much too early to crown Virginia and the AP voters made certain not to do so, with UVA being the second team out of the AP Top 25 with 49 votes. And there will be thoroughly challenging tests still to come in non-conference play for Virginia, which will see Wisconsin (Kenpom #24), Texas A&M (Kenpom #16), and Memphis (Kenpom #26) in the next month and a half. But for now, the Cavaliers appear to be well ahead of their expected timeline and are building a very solid foundation for this season. 

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